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here are a few more photos of my drive home from Florida in March of this year…again all were taken from the passenger window as we drove…this is leaving Kentucky,heading into Cincinnati Ohio…towards the Brent Spence Bridge…I cropped out all the vehicles ahead of us not sure it was a good idea?

the photos above and blow are of the same area, but the top was a different angle & cropped …

I’ve always wondered about these skinny houses in Cincinnati and why they were built this way…this is the first shot I’ve been able to do anything with…I’ve searched the internet but couldn’t find any info on the skinny houses…if anyone can tell me where I can read the history on these houses let me know…

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When driving to and from Florida I would snap shots along I75…most are terrible, but everyone so often I see one that has merit, with a little help of course. These were taken this past March on the way home in Kentucky…this one from a distance looks like the moss you see in Florida…not sure if it is though…it is a bit blurry, but thought it was interesting none the less.If you have visited before you will know I’ve a thing for gnarly trees, especially on their own…

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I’ve not had a chance to get out and take new shots so for today, two of the photos will be ones I took two Saturdays ago, the other one is from Cocoa Beach that I took this winter…I love the water so never get tired of see or taking water photos! I wanted the whole pier so had to stand way back then crop the photo to bring it in…not thrilled with it though.

the pier at Cocoa Beach…only visited for a few days but enjoyed it…on the pier I think there are 4 restaurants…only visited one but enjoyed the food and music!

this is another part of the waterfront here, if you look closely you can see the Chief Commanda I, restaurant in the background.

I’ve not been around the last day or so as I’ve been very busy…may not be around much until Sunday. The first photo is of Cincinnati on my way home from Florida this year, taken from the passenger side window…the architecture of the old Cincinnati narrow buildings fascinates me but I don’t think I got a photo that is descent, so I’ll show this…

the next two are the Gardner Expressway in Toronto, of course from the vehicle…the first is sepia…the other black & white…cropped differently.

I saw this old barn on the drive home from Florida this winter… in Kentucky I think. The photos was taken from the vehicle out of the passenger side window. The roof has seen better days…thought I’d try it in both color and black & white…do you have a preference?

this pergola is used as a fundraiser for the Community Waterfront Friends, they are raising funds to complete the North Bay Waterfront Park, which is a work in progress…the pergola allows for 2,500 stainless steel numbered leaves at $500.00 per leaf. the idea is these are “leaves of inspiration” as they are engraved with the names of those individuals, family, children, parents, or non-profit organizations which have been an inspiration to others…with the purchase of each leaf the Community Waterfront Friends be one step closer to completing the North Bay Waterfront Park.

the Pro Cathedral of the Assumption, Roman Catholic Church, built in 1904, with a foundation built from North Bay granite an white limestone from Longford…below is Discovery North Bay Museum, since 1973… the permanent home is the former CPR train station…

I visit a number of photography blogs and every now and then I’m inspired to try something different with the processing of the photos. I’m limited to some extent with the programs I have, Photoscape, and Picasa…I also have gimp but I’ve not taken the time to get into it. recently I”ve seen a few blogs who are using some form of HDR effect, which I rather like so I checked Picasa and it has a setting called HDR-ish…so I gave it a try with a couple of my photos…if you’ve been visiting for awhile you will know I’ve a thing for gnarly, naked trees…the waterfront on Lake Nipissing offers a few great ones due to the very high winds blowing regularly in the area…below is the original photo.

I went back to Sunset Park yesterday…I wanted to see if there were any changes since Sunday…not much really, with the exception of more snow piled up on the small islands off the shores of Sunset Park. I rather liked this piece of ice floating along…

on my way home I stopped at the Eva Wardlaw Conservation area…the creek flows into Lake Nipissing…it was like glass yesterday…allowing for interesting reflections…

saw this Mallard Duck come out of the culvert and swim along towards Lake Nipissing…he didn’t appear to care that I was there, although he did make sure to stay close to the opposite bank…I saw a number of Mallards at Sunset Park but they didn’t like me around and quickly flew away…

here are a couple more of the ice breaking up…all were taken on Sunday. this is facing the area/bay where I grew up, if you look closely you will see a water tower above the tree line on the left just past the clump of trees in the foreground. my home as a child is to the left of that…I know you can’t see anything but this may help visitors understand why I love the water so much!

I like the dark and light of the pieces of ice…some pieces are more saturated with water than others…I heard on the news last evening there is a possibility of flooding on Lake Nipissing…they feel it could reach flood levels by the weekend…some of you may remember I shot a photo from a similiar angle in the winter…looks different…I’ll take another when the grass is green…

it isn’t what you think…the Green Parrot is a bar in Key West, on the corner of Whitehead and Southard Streets, where everyone and anyone stops in to enjoy great music and a beverage…it is so busy it is almost impossible to get a seat on Friday or Saturday evening…serving locals and tourists alike since 1890…

as you can see the bicycle is a popular mode of transportation in Key West…

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I love old gnarly naked trees, they have such amazing texture and detail…if you look closely there is so much to see. Key West has some of the most wonderful trees, old, very gnarly, bent in unusual shapes for who knows why, not to forget the lush colours…this one is one of my favourites,I call it the “hand”…the second photo gives you a better idea of why…

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for the most part I don’t see the sunrise…I don’t have a clear view so I don’t bother…besides, for the most part I’m not up then! this sunrise was captured through the vehicle window as we were driving home…between Windsor & London…I rather like the silhouette of the trees…

the next two are sunsets from Key West…a bit dark…I had trouble with the first one in particular…couldn’t get it right!

well…I’m home…so I will be back posting and visiting again regularly! I took many photos, some I like and some I don’t, but for today I’m going to show you three of one of my favourite things to capture…”naked trees” as I like to call them. they are beautiful with their leaves, but there is so much more detail and character to them, when they are scraggly looking, bent in some of the most interesting ways…

love this scene…as you can see it was a rather dreary looking day, but warm, which cancels out the dreary! on the ride home somewhere in Kentucky…

same day and drive… but I’m fine with the colours…I don’t mind a dreary day once in a while, especially if it is warm…

PS…all photos were taken from my moving vehicle, on the drive home from Florida…

I’m enjoying experimenting with the settings in PhotoScape…it is a free program that is basically for beginners like myself…it does have a few advanced settings, at least to me they are… of which I’m trying to understand but for the most part it is very simple to work with!

yesterday I took this photo of the gnarly birch tree…I love trees with limbs like this one so interesting, always makes me wonder why the limb grew the way it did? I took the photo of the whole tree but it is in front of what I think is one of the City yards and there are work buildings etc., which doesn’t contribute to an interesting photo…too much going on when I wanted to concentrate on just the tree, so as you can tell it is cropped…

then I decided to play a little with the tools in PhotoScape as I’ve not done a great deal with it yet…this one is colour enhanced slightly.

this one is of course grayscale…

on this one I adjusted the luminance curve…

and finally…this one is reverse black and white…

very interesting to see what can be done with a relatively simple program…for the time being PhotoScape works for me…I know there is so much more that can be done with PhotoShop, but I don’t have the time to learn the ins and outs before I begin using it…this works for now!

writing has never come easily to me, I generally write something over and over until I like how it reads, which is why I don’t often write a great deal on this blog…I’ve been doing a weekly column for an online newspaper, regarding my jewelry business since June and I have to admit the writing is flowing better. so much so that I actually took up a writing challenge…

one of the blogs I follow, SethSnap has a post now and then where he shows a photo then asks his readers to write the words for it…can be what ever you want to in the way of writing. below is my first attempt, I really didn’t think just allowed the words to come to mind then typed them …these are the photos Seth offered…please click on either photo to be taken to the his original post!

Winter

two huddled together
sometimes it feels like forever
under the white blanket…
awaiting the sun’s radiance
they must have patience
the warmth they are craving
forces them to wait
with promises of sun kisses
when the white season has ended…

thank you to Seth for allowing me to use his photos here for this post!

I’ve down loaded a new photo software program, PhotoScape…it is simple to use, easy to find my way around, for the most part…especially when I take the time to play a bit…of course there are settings I’ve no idea of what they do but that will come with experimentation. I tried GIMP a couple of weeks ago, while I’m sure it is a great program I found it too complicated for me right now…I would have to learn the software before I could do any thing and didn’t want to take the time…PhotoScape I could jump right in and do things right away…so I did a bit of experimentation today to see what I could come up with.

this has been colour enhanced…I rather like the little sparkles all over the photo…and the blue is part of the enhancement…

Love sitting at the small uniquely interesting outdoor “bar/cafe” that is to the left of this photo…it is usually peaceful, now and then a boat will pass by, would be a great place to sit and read!. When I’m there this winter I will take a photo of the bar/cafe…it is old, and run down, in terrible shape really, I’m sure it hasn’t been updated in years but I like it regardless…

Please be aware that all the images on this blog are the property of me, Heather Cote and therefore are copyrighted. Please do not copy or use any of the images. If you wish to use one or more then please contact me and we can discuss use and costs, if any.